Cubs Strand 17, Win 3-1
A strange day on both sides for the Cubs Saturday as they scratch out a 3-1 win over the Reds. Randy Wells took the headlines early as he took a no-hitter into the seventh before giving up a leadoff single to Chris Heisey. Wells earned the win (4-6, 4.67 ERA) going seven and two-thirds innings, giving up one earned run and striking out five.
The offense--which consisted of two hits in Friday's 12-0 loss to the Reds--came up with 10 hits Saturday. Thing is, they weren't exactly timely. The Cubs stranded 17 men and came to the plate eight times. That's one shy of the all-time NL record and three short of the MLB record (set by the Yankees in a game against the Red Sox in 1956).
Alfonso Soriano was the one to finally break through in the sixth with a bloop-single into center with the bases loaded and one away. Geovany Soto tagged on two more when he hit a ground-rule double into the ivy in left. After the game Lou Piniella made it clear just how relieving those runs felt. "Yeah and the ball gets stuck in the ivy and costs us another one. Well, three looked like 13 to me," Piniella joked. "We swung the bats well. We didn't do any batting practice today. We didn't do any cage work. All we did was got loose and played."
Piniella was the asked if the team would take batting practice tomorrow, considering the favorable results. Lou just smiled and said, "I'll leave that up to the hitting coach."
